Israeli troops demolish family home of deceased Palestinian teenager

KAUBER, West Bank — Israeli occupation forces on Tuesday demolished the family home of a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank who killed an Israeli settler one month ago, 

The Palestinian teenager was shot and killed on site. 

Dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks, firebombs and pipe bombs at troops deployed in the village, the Israeli authorities said in a statement. 

It said none of the soldiers were hurt and there were no immediate reports of any Palestinian injuries.

Footage distributed by the military showed an armoured bulldozer tearing into the one-storey structure in the village of Kauber, north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Mohammed Tareq Ibraham Dar Youssef, 17, broke into the settlement of Adam on July 26 and stabbed three people, killing Yotam Ovadia, 31. One of those wounded in the assault fatally shot the Palestinian, the military said.

Dar Youssef’s uncle, Khaled Abu Ayyoush, said the youth’s parents, two brothers and two sisters had lived in the house razed in the night-time operation. The family, he said, had known nothing of his intention to carry out an attack.

“Why are they at fault? Israel’s continued policy of collective punishment is merciless,” Abu Ayyoush said.

The Israeli supreme court has upheld the demolition policy, which Israeli officials have termed to be both punitive and deterring to potential attacks.

Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital, and say Israel’s expansion of settlements in occupied territory would deny them a viable and contiguous country.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.